1.08.2004

The Yeastie Boy

Seymour is desperately trying to figure out why our boy is so fucking spazzy. My partner keeps flitting around, trying to blame it on one thing or another: supplements, foods, exercise or lack thereof, etc. He'll come bounding up to me and exclaim "When did Leelo start so-and-so? Because I think that was it! We need to take him off of it!" and I just have to stand firm and remind him that the boy has been spazzy for months and months and months. It's not going to do Leelo or us any good to interrupt a treatment sequence without straight, hard evidence for doing so.

Personally, I think the hyperactivity is a result of a serious problem with candida and sugar intolerance. Serious. Leelo was subjected to round after round of increasingly powerful antibiotics from ages 8 to 28 months, and it scraped all the beneficial biota right out of his GI tract. His little gut was left without defense against a Candida (yeast) infestation, so the yeast swept in and took over.

As described in the pamphlet put out by the Autism Research Institute (I found no online version other than the link above; you have to order a hard copy), Candida infestations can produce symptoms similar to inebriation or being "high." That's a pretty good description of our boy much of the time. Candida feeds on sugar, and the reaction to too high a dose of sugar is a quick descent into loopiness. The best treatment is powerful anti-fungals (Diflucan, Nystatin, etc.) combined with a strict low-sugar diet.

Leelo didn't used to fit the Candida overgrowth profile, because he was always sick with a cold or ear infection. Feeling like crap toned down his hyperactivity. But as soon as he got ear tubes put in (April 2003) and became a mostly healthy boy, the spazzing took over. The period of lovely calmness that Seymour is mooning over descended in August because Leelo started his biomedical/DAN regimen then. We began by putting the boy on a strict low sugar diet backed up with Nystatin and Diflucan (the latter for 14 days only). He wasn't taking all his sugary juicy supplement cocktails yet, because we introduced those gradually, starting a few weeks later.

We were okay about minimizing his juice and sugar during Fall 2003, because he wasn't taking all that many supplements. Plus, for a while, he was accepting rice milk instead of juice (half the sugar).

But right around Christmas he started rejecting rice milk, and the number of supplements increased, so the amount of juice he needs to take to "mask" them has increased markedly, as has his wackiness (singing constantly, looking you in the eye but otherwise refusing to acknowledge your presence). Combine this with a dingbat mom whose lack of communication skills with the local pharmacist resulted in no anti-fungal meds at all for the four-day New Year weekend, and we have a completely goofy little boy with such a bad yeast infection that his diapers smell like a bakery, even though we've resumed the Nystatin (apologies to any new readers, the rest of you know how much poop-description goes on here).

So, take him off the juice and supplements! is what I've been told. Well, we can't, because we're awaiting a chelation challenge. This means three days on the chelation drug DMSA and, at the end of the cycle, sending off a poo sample to see if the DMSA extracted excessive heavy metals from his body. If the results are positive, then we'll need to keep chelating until the amount of excreted metals reaches acceptable levels. The problem for us is that DMSA doesn't just strip away unwanted metals--it also leaches critical minerals (Magnesium, Selenium, etc.). We have to bolster his body's supply of minerals for at least two weeks beforehand, and he won't take those minerals without at least 6 oz of straight juice. Aiiggh!

Short version: I can't choose between chelation and anti-Candida measures. We need to do both.

I've spoken to Dr. P., his ever-patient DAN doctor. We're going to put Leelo on another round of Diflucan, and at the same time experiment with how many supplements we can put into a low-sugar smoothie made of just apples and pears. I really hope we can reach some sort of balance.